What's Wrong With This Picture?

"Welcome to the 2009 Safeway Father’s Day Walk/Run, on Sunday, June 21, 2009 walkers and runners from Halifax to Victoria will join together to Tie em' Up for men." No Safeway in Newfoundland I guess. If you know of any similar Newfoundland events for prostate cancer awareness email me here. Here's a prostate cancer FAQ from the CBC. Make sure you read the comments too. This means you, brother.

Everything You Know Is Wrong

Well not everything. You may know the Habs to be the best hockey team in the world. No matter how many times they lose. But a lot of other stuff is incomprehensible too. For example, here is an older but still valid list of 13 deeply scientific things that do not make sense.

Wolfram Alpha

Keep your eyes peeled for a new way of Web searching - and a potential rival for Google. Search Engine Land's Danny Sullivan has the story on Wolfram Alpha.

Update: From the Independent: "An invention that could change the Internet for ever."

Debating Prostate Cancer Screening

"A month after two large studies sparked fresh debate about whether prostate cancer screening actually saves lives, a leading doctors' group has issued new guidelines, encouraging men to start getting screened at age 40." See your doctors guys. Don't delay. And talk it up! If we don't, who will?

Now The Muggles Have Done It

"The great science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke famously noted the similarities between advanced technology and magic. University of California Berkeley’s Nano-scale Science and Engineering Center has created a “carpet cloak” from nanostructured silicon that conceals the presence of objects placed under it from optical detection." It looks like the wizards have truly developed a Cloak of Invisibility.

Top Of The Ocean Food Chain

"Just when the seabirds had the herring all rounded up and were starting to feast ... the whole thing was gone. It was a bit of a shock for the underwater cameraman." To say the least. Great video from the BBC wildlife series Nature's Great Events: The Great Feast. An accompanying photo caption places the action in the Pacific Ocean.

How To Paint A Car

1. In Photoshop. Virtually .
2. With a roller and fifty bucks. Really.

I know you won't believe you can get a good paint job with a roller, so here's a snap of the finished product:

Hilariously Violent Toyota Commercial

This British commercial made the Internet rounds a couple of years ago but if you haven't seen it, prepare to laugh out loud. Or not. And when was the last time you heard The Turtles anyway?

FoxNews Is The Wrong News. Apparently.

FoxNews is right. So therefore it must be wrong. That's the opinion of a Michigan teacher who berated one of his students for reading the "wrong" news. What did he think was the correct news? The BBC. Once upon a time teachers espoused diversity of thought and encouraged discussion on all points of view. But hey, it's the 21st century and lots of mainstream teachers, like lots of mainstream media, must conform to the narrative.

Cars And Photography

If there's something in this world I've loved as much as cars since I was a kid, it's cameras and photography. And among the hardest subjects to photograph well (after kids), is cars. With lots of old cars waking from winter slumber and new photo ops looming, Hemmings Auto Blog writer Jeff Koch contributes 10 easy steps to making your car photos better than ever.

Antarctic Wilkins Ice Shelf Collapses. Again. And Again. And...

Lots of news recently about the collapse of the Wilkins Ice Shelf in Antarctica. Most media report the phenomenon as if it never happened before and tie it to "catastrophic man-made global warming" here, here and here. Boy, this is getting too easy. Also see this. Note too that the CBC article also unwittingly recycles the same photograph wrongly stating it was taken on March 6.

Follow The Green-backs II

Al Gore has said that greed and corporate profiteering are behind efforts to discredit his global warming alarmism. And yet Gore has not only richly profited already from manufacturing this crisis, he stands to make much, much more as his radical agenda succeeds even beyond his wildest dreams.

A Magic Allergy Switch?

I was sneezing and snuffling and wheezing as I digested, er glanced through, er didn't read the latest issue of the Journal of Leukocyte Biology only to find this link to an article that scientists have identified a previously unknown cellular switch that turns allergies and asthma both on and off. More of this please. And faster.

I've Aways Wondered About "Ratings"

"Either Nielsen's ratings for the past 20 years were flawed before they switched to people meters, or they are flawed now that they have switched to people meters." Ansin asked, which is it? Nielsen's answer: neither." A new lawsuit in Florida tries to get at why one TV station's ratings dropped 50% overnight even though they were showing American Idol.

Off The Pigs!

"Swine flu is "more serious than the hydrogen bomb", the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's largest opposition group, said in a symposium on the health scare on Wednesday. No cases of swine flu have yet been reported in Egypt, although the Cairo parliament on Tuesday voted to slaughter the country's entire pig livestock of around 250 000 animals in a precautionary measure. The Muslim Brotherhood - which although banned is Egypt's largest opposition bloc in parliament - voted for the cull, and said on Wednesday that the swine flu outbreak demonstrated the wisdom of the Islamic ban on pork." This in spite of the scientific fact that swine flu is not spread by eating pork. Sigh.

Greg Baum's 1919 Willy's T, Rat Rod

Sometimes a Rat Rod, er "work of art" is so inappropriate and so politically incorrect it is hilarious. Close to the end of this display some guy yells "Git yer hotdogs". You gotta love it. What an entrance this would make to your school reunion. I want one.

Wine Adds Years To Life

New studies show wine and beer add years to your life. Hat tip to Glenn Reynolds for the pointer to this glorious news.

A Miracle Of Epidemiology And IT

In the National Post today - "The very fact that doctors and health regulators are already talking in an educated way about swine flu is itself a miracle of modern epidemiology and information technology. As we write this, on April 29, a mere 27 days have passed since the first confirmed patient -- five-year-old Edgar Enrique Hernandez of La Gloria, Mexico -- got sick on April 2." Many in the media are breathlessly chasing the swine flu story but they are well behind the truly breathtaking pace set by the epidemiologists in responding to the outbreak.

Here's a Pontiac GTO commercial from 1966. We didn't see it in Canada because we didn't get the GTO until 1968. Maybe thaaaaat's why I wanted one so bad. Nimble, agile, wide track? I mean, do you get any sense of innuendo here? I have to ask - would this be allowed on TV today? Hell no!



Afterthought: Mechanics must have been scared to lift the hood back in the day.

A Bull Market Coming?

"Sumner Redstone, executive chairman of CBS Corp, said on Wednesday that he thinks the U.S. stock market is at the start of a bull market. The octogenarian media mogul also said he has no plans to step down anytime soon or give up his controlling positions in CBS or Viacom ."The one thing I would never do is lose control of CBS and Viacom," he said, adding, "I have no intention of retiring or dying. I could live and work forever," he said, attributing his robust health to antioxidants, exercise and a shot of vodka a day."

I admire this man's style and I love optimists in general. But read on to see what he thinks about the future (or lack thereof) of newspapers.

Ted Reynolds Has Died

Canadian sports broadcasting legend and CBC Television veteran Ted Reynolds died early Tuesday morning. He was 83. More from CBCSports.ca.

An Epidemic of Fear?

My favorite blogger Instapundit Glenn Reynolds links to Austin Bay on Strategy Page: "The swine flu of 2009 is a threat, but another plague immediately associated with this genuine viral killer deserves to be slammed and canned for the manipulative and exploitative corn it is. I refer to the Epidemic of Fear, a plague insistently poised to infect the entire planet." Click through and read it all.

What Does One Trillion Dollars Look Like?

With all the bailout trillions flying around you might be interested in a visual frame of reference for a trillion dollars. It's a lot more than you might think. Waaaaaay more.

An eBay For Jobs?

"If you’re looking for old record players, Spider-Man lunchboxes, or Elvis memorabilia, there’s always eBay. So why these days, when many of us are desperately looking for work, isn’t there an eBay for jobs?" Why indeed. Turns out there is. But only in the US for now. And (shameless plug) look at my sidebar to the right and email me if you have a job for, well, me.

Polar Ice - Thicker Than We've Been Told?

Al Gore said Tuesday the world must act quickly to slow the melting of the world's polar ice packs and glaciers before it reaches a critical rate for global warming. Could this be why I have to find this report on a Polar Ice Survey on a German website and then translate it in Google? Is it because it does not fit the anthropogenic global warming narrative in the North American mainstream media?

(By the way, that lovely red, white and blue airplane is a 1943 DC-3 heavily modified with turboprop engines and scientific instrumentation. Lots of oddly-thumb-nailed pictures of the mods here.)

It's An Ill Wind Indeed...

...that blows no one any good. This Internet start-up (upstart?) finds patterns in web traffic to predict events. They say they predicted the current swine flu outbreak. "The idea fueling Veratect and similar companies is that blogs, online chat rooms, Twitter feeds and news media and government Web sites are full of data that public health agencies could use to respond faster to problems like outbreaks of swine flu."

Two earthquakes off Newfoundland

They were felt onshore too. VOCM has the earliest.

Update: More from VOCM here, and details from Earthquakes Canada.

Joe Sherlock - The View Through The Windshield

Joe Sherlok - that's his real name (and he has a 1939 Plymouth and he has a large model railroad) writes a short history of Pontiac focusing on the 50s and 60s models. His descriptions are just right. I believe the 60s GM cars represent the best of 20th century industrial style. The 1965 Pontiac fastback coupe is among the finest examples. It defines a Classic.

Joe uses fantastic period art of a 1958 Buick B-58 coupe to head up his pages. The six passengers - kids and grownups - look like they've just heard some really good news. Also check out the S-motif hood emblem.

Playing For Change: Song Around the World "Stand By Me"

Here's an amazing music video from the Playing For Change Project. Check them out here.

Google Maps Annoyance

Have you ever noticed that the capital city of Newfoundland and Labrador on Google maps or on Google Earth is Mt. Pearl? Here's a screen cap -



I have emailed Google's map supplier TeleAtlas twice to ask them to correct this mistake but no change. This might just be the Townie in me coming out, but could it be that some fifth columnist from (gasp!) Mt. Pearl actually works at TeleAtlas? Link to TeleAtlas corrections here.

Pandemic Perspective

If you watch television at all you have been exposed to dozens of stories about Mexican swine flu and how it could, should, would, might, may be a pandemic. So far we have a few cases in Canada. And, so far, zero deaths. Contrast this to the run-of-the-mill reality of a "normal" flu season according to Health Canada: "During a severe flu season, as many as 8,000 Canadians die from influenza and its complications; on average there are 4,000 deaths from annual flu." 4,000 dead from flu is the average. Every year. When did you last hear that on CBC? Here's more on pandemics from Health Canada.

Update: Canada's Public Health Agency has issued an official public health warning: "Postpone elective or non-essential travel to Mexico until further notice."

Follow the Green-backs

"There’s going to be money in “going Green.” A lot of money: it’s the latest fad, on a scale comparable to the tulip craze of a few centuries ago. But we crested this wave a year or so back, and if it’s all the same to everybody else I’d personally prefer that we not further enrich a bunch of cynical fearmongers quite so much before the eventual crash." And Al Gore's personal wealth has expanded fifty-fold since 2000. Read it all over at Moe Lane's.

Update: Gateway Pundit: "Don't expect Gore's green cheerleaders in the media to report on this." I love the photo!

How Dumb Is This?

Luckily there was no freelance anti-aircraft batteries on the ground. What idiots planned this?




Update: Oh. Those idiots.

Is It Time For An All-Canadian Car?

Australia does it (Holden). Sweden does it (Volvo). India does it (Tata). With the American carpocalypse freeing up all this excess production capacity in southern Ontario, is it time to launch our own all-Canadian automobile? Hell Yes! Here's what I want. First, let's set a price target of $25K on the road anywhere in Canada. Now let have a state of the art four cylinder turbo diesel for torque and fuel economy, all wheel drive for the snow, a choice of manual or automatic, four doors and a hatchback, a killer heater/defrost/aircon system, a comfortable well-made interior, and above all - a no-nonsense suspension system that will give near-sports car handling while absorbing a 10-inch deep St. John's pothole with ZERO damage. Hmm, so far I am describing the Volkswagen Tiguan and the Porsche Cayenne except for the potholes. Oh, and the price. You know I think Canadians really could beat the Germans at creating this car. Good luck Scott Paterson.

The Propeller-Driven Fighter Plane Evolves

In the latest James Bond flick 'Quantum of Solace' Bond makes an escape by piloting my favorite airplane of all time, a Douglas DC-3. Seconds later he's shot down by an Italian-made circa 1964 Aermacchi SF-260. The obvious high performance of this tiny propeller-driven plane got me to wondering. Has propeller fighter tech continued to advance since WWII and Viet Nam? The answer is an astonishing yes. The state of the art is the Brazilian Embraer EMB 314 Super Tucano. And the US Navy is seriously interested.

Model Steam Engine/Lego Mashup

Here's a useful steam application from twdunbar - its a steam powered USB iPod charger. The steam engine is a Jensen #75 connected to a Lego Technic motor via a rubber band. Since the Lego motor is being driven by the steam engine it acts like a generator. You can hear the engine load up once the iPod is plugged in.

Steampunk

The exploding mantel clocks and the Victorian electric engines seem to be further evolutions of Steampunk fashion. Here's a modern-Victorian take on the all-in-one PC from the Steampunk Workshop and how it was done.

The Froment Engine and Others

"When Michael Faraday in Great Britain and Joseph Henry in the United States both discovered electricity at roughly the same time in 1831 nobody knew what to do with it because nothing in the world worked on electricity." But it didn't take long. The earliest devices were modeled on contemporary steam engines - liner motion converted to reciprocation. Up and down becomes round and round. The great breakthrough came with the invention of pure revolving armatures. Here are some exquisite model kits of vintage electric engines by The Old Model Company. And you won't believe the old world attention to detail. The video shows three of their gorgeous models.

Table Clock With Plunkydunks

We've been mildly interested in getting a new mantle clock for the living room. I came across this astonishing original art clock made by Toronto artist Roger Wood. Three feet tall. With plunkydunks. I always wondered what those dangly wassanames were called. Sorta like earrings I guess. Check out Roger's Current Inventory. My real favorites are the Small Exploding Mantle Clocks.

What is Going On With the Sun?

Sunspots are a leading indicator of solar activity. In other words, the more sunspots, the more output, the hotter the sun gets. For months now there has been no sign of sunspots. The sun is actually cooling slightly. If this continues, we may find ourselves in a new "Maunder Minimum". That was a period of about 30 years centered on 1700 when there were also no sunspots. It is the time we know today as The Little Ice Age. It seems intuitive to me that sun output and temperatures on Earth are directly linked. But that's an inconvenient truth to the man-made global warmists. More from today's Independent.

Packard. Studebaker. Oldsmobile...

What do these three have in common? They were once thriving, now dead car brands. And now its official - they will be joined in 2010 by Pontiac, Saab, Saturn and Hummer. GM is dying the death of a thousand cuts. Hummer was a dead man walking anyway. Saturn they got completely wrong. But Pontiac and Saab? That's a shame. Robert Farago has the story over at The Truth About Cars.

Global Warming: How It All Began

Here's a little perspective: What do the British coal miner's union, Trident nuclear missiles and man-made global warming all have in common?

Margaret Thatcher.

Yes, in 1979 that right-wing heroine of free market capitalism faced two seemingly divergent problems - she desperately needed a way to crush the coal miners union and she desperately needed new atomic weapons.

So she and her advisers contrived to invent global warming to scare the public off King Coal. To replace the coal she proposed nuclear plants with their handy byproducts of fissionable material.

Lady Thatcher touted her bachelors in Chemistry degree as qualification enough to expound on the brand new "science" of global warming. She succeeded beyond her wildest dreams. She had her way with the unions, built new nuclear plants and weapons, and left us with one of the greatest scientific hoaxes of all time - Anthropogenic Global Warming - the Piltdown Man of climatology.

Read the exquisite details here.

Liberals Can Be Skeptics Too

Yes liberals are allowed to be skeptics too. "Climate change catastrophists classify those who disagree with their position as 'deniers,' Republicans in bed with big oil, etc. Well, there's at least one exception." This is from Thomas Fuller, liberal environmental analyst with the San Francisco Examiner.

Achoo! Oink. Update...

Here's what you need to know about swine flu from New Scientist.

Bringing Up BillG

Slashdot links to an article in the Wall Street Journal about dealing with an unruly 12-year old Bill Gates. "I'm at war with my parents over who is in control,' Bill Gates recalls telling a therapist...". Note to parents everywhere: Guess who won that war?

How To Deal With Pirates

"An Italian cruise ship with 1,500 people on board fended off a pirate attack far off the coast of Somalia when its Israeli private security forces exchanged fire with the bandits and drove them away." Well good for them.

Inside the Echo Chamber?

Have you ever wondered why it seems the mainstream US media (ABC, MSNBC, CNN, NYT etc.) all seem to have the same slant, er bias, er narrative? Has it ever occurred to you that they seem to be working off the same playbook? Yeah, I thought so too. Well here is a possible reason for that. I don't know if there's a Canadian version of JournoList, but I would not be surprised at all, at all.

Charles W. Cushman Photograph Collection

I probably came across this collection while searching for pictures of old cars and there are plenty of them here. But that's not usually what Charles Cushman was shooting. His collection of seemingly random Kodachromes of people and scenes taken all over the world is a remarkable time capsule. Beware though, Cushman was prolific. You can waste a lot of time here, but as John Lennon said, "Time you enjoy wasting is not time wasted." So Enjoy!

Pharmacy Mistake Blamed in Deaths of 21 Polo Horses

"An Ocala pharmacy has taken responsibility for botching a vitamin compound given to the horses just hours before they died." So it appears it was not deliberate.

The Aptera Electric Car

"If you're the kind of person who loves to be the center of attention, the Aptera 2e is the car for you. The three-wheel, two-seat electric car draws a crowd everywhere it goes." I'm OK with electric cars. As long as the on-the-road power, heater and defroster are as good as an internal combustion engine in the worst of the Newfoundland winter.

Star Trek Reviews

The Star Trek prequel (young Kirk, Spock et al) opens May 8. With twelve reviews in it scores 100% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. Trailers here.

Obama Names MADD CEO to Head NHTSA

The NHTSA is the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. MADD of course is Mothers Against Drunk Driving. I supported MADD when they were really about getting drunks off the roads but now MADD has been taken over by the total abstinance crowd. And they have a much more annoying agenda than just drunk driving. No reason to believe they are less motivated in Canada

Facebook Ettiquette - 50s Style

"This is a simple lesson on Facebook etiquette. Rule #1 - don't change your relationship status without consulting the other person. Watch the rest for the other four rules." I love the fake-50s production values, especially the "computing machine".

Bea Arthur Has Died

Bea Arthur, born Beatrice Frankel, has died at age 86. More from the Washington Post.